Celebrate

Let's Party!  Within a 3 week period of time, we celebrated Owen's 3rd Birthday, Mother's Day and Ava's 1st Birthday.  All great reasons to celebrate - and we made the most of each occasion!  

(photo note: click on the collages to enlarge)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Owen!

Owen loves dinosaurs - so of course we celebrated with a prehistoric theme!  His birthday was on Monday and we hosted a party with family on Sunday.

We had lots of fun with several silly dinosaur-related games 

Owen could hardly wait to dive into the cake

Feeling a little bashful as everyone sings "Happy Birthday" 

A huge slice of cake - requiring two forks, apparently!

Family spoiled Owen with lots of dinosaur gifts, books, and his first bike!

Monday's are swim lessons and we all enjoyed cheering on the birthday-boy. 

Home from swim lessons to find that Kaity (our nanny) made Owen a yummy lunch - with lots of special loving touches! 

For his birthday dinner we took Owen for his first Chuck E Cheese experience. He (and Ava!) had a blast!

We love you, Owen!  You are such a delight, and we are so excited to see all the ways you continue to learn and grow during this next year!

Happy Mother's Day!

The weather was beautiful - and we spent as much time outside as possible!   Here we are preparing for a family bike-ride using our new bike trailer.

Lots of love - Owen giving hugs, Ava blowing kisses. Nothing can make a mama's heart happier!

Brian and Owen surprised me with a beautiful garden on our deck as my Mother's Day gift.  We can't wait to enjoy our homegrown strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes and herbs!  

Happy 1st Birthday, Ava!

A little photo-shoot with our birthday girl 

(Thank you, Esther, for the super-cute tutu!)

Ready to party!

Family was so generous with gifts for our little girl - and she did great opening the presents, with lots of help from big brother!  What fun to have so many "girly" toys in our house now.  She got some dolls, a push-stroller, and lots of cute clothes and accessories!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Cake!

Happy Birthday our sweet Ava!  You bring us such joy and we love you to pieces!

Happy Easter

He Is Risen...He Is Risen, Indeed!

We were able to celebrate Easter day with lots of special family time. We enjoyed brunch with Linnea's great-grandma, and dinner (and an Easter egg hunt!) with Brian's family.

We hope you had a blessed Easter as well, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord!

In anticipation of Easter, Owen enjoyed his first experience with coloring Easter eggs!

Thanks, Safta (Grandma Julie) for the cute "My First Easter" outfit!

Special time with Linnea's grandma ("great-gran" to Owen & Ava)

Enjoying time in Grandma Pam's beautiful back yard, getting ready for the Easter Egg hunt!

Ready for action!

Hanging with Papa G. (Brian's dad) and watching the "hunt". She'll love participating next year!

Ava 10 Months

Ava is 10months (well, actually 10 1/2 months now I guess!) She weighs about 15.5lbs and is a bundle of energy! Ava smiles easily and loves to laugh. She does a silly quick-breathing through her nose with a big toothy smile when she's excited. She babbles & squeals, claps, signs "all done" and lifts her arms when she wants to be picked-up. Ava loves to hug & snuggle, crawls like crazy and walks along furniture. Her favorite toys are anything that can go in her mouth. She especially loves her colorful whiffle balls, her stuffed owl and little stuffed bear rattle. She has 4 teeth along the top and 2 on bottom. She takes two good naps each day and sleeps well through the night (6:30pm-6:30am). Ava is really enjoying the transition to finger/table foods - liking most things that we offer! In particular she enjoys yogurt, fresh fruit (like pear & banana), crackers & bread. This month brought another first - one that we actually would rather have avoided, if possible. A big cold spread through our family, and unfortunately Ava got her first ear infection. She was a trooper, and thankfully the cold is behind us and we're all healthy again.

With Ava getting much more active, keeping Ava still for her monthly photos is getting considerably more difficult!

What we've been up to!

I cannot believe how far behind I am on my blog postings! In an effort to catch-up, below are a bunch of photos to highlight what we've been up to so far this year. In a nutshell, we're both keeping busy with work - Brian now in tax season and Linnea has traveled more for work in the last couple of months than normal. We're involved with regular weekly activities at our Church, Owen is in swim lessons and a music class, and Ava will start Gymboree classes next week! We also enjoy lots of down-time at home just playing and being silly! And once this winter weather wraps-up (what is the deal with snow in March?!) we are looking forward to spring and lots of outdoor fun!

January Photos:

What can be sweeter than a baby fresh out of a bath and wrapped in a cozy towel!

Enjoyed a great weekend with Linnea's parents at their place in Black Butte to celebrate the New Year holiday

(Thanks, Esther, for the awesome homemade hat! So cozy and so cute...I mean handsome!)

Owen teaching dad how to use the iPad :)

Ava enjoying lots of new experiences with food. And Owen is a great helper!

Eight Month's Old

Lots of fun during a visit from cousin Landon (and his parents, of course!)

February Photos:

Watch me crawl! So excited!

Sibling silliness :)

9 Month's Old

Having so much fun at good friend Madelyn's 3rd birthday party!

Using a sippy cup!

Sorry Ava...so much of our baby gear is blue from having Owen first. But girls can like blue too, right?! :) Oh well, her girly wardrobe definitely makes up for the boy themed baby gear!

March Photos:

Owen loves wearing a band-aid, whether or not he needs one :)

Totally into dinosaurs - and knows them all by name!